Some embodiments disclosed herein relate to patient management systems and, more particularly, to patient management systems for controlling the type and/or quantity of information communicated between a medical device, a data mart, one or more customers, and/or the patient.
Medical devices are being offered with increasing capacity for storing physiological and device performance data. Moreover, the use of home monitoring instrumentation and equipment is gaining popularity for managing patients with chronic illnesses. Physiological sensors for monitoring various patient conditions may operate in connection with a medical device and home based instrumentation for acquiring continuous or periodic physiological data for processing and/or storage by the medical device or for clinical management. Such data may be used by the medical device in automated therapy delivery or by a clinician in diagnosing or monitoring a patient condition and in his or her therapy management.
A data mart is a convenient place for storing physiological and device performance data from multiple medical devices. Some data marts can store data from tens of thousands of medical devices. Medical devices typically provide all of the information stored in their memory to the data mart on a periodic basis (e.g., every 90 days). Upon receipt of a full transmission from a medical device, the data mart usually provides all of that information to one or more customers (e.g., physicians, nurses, technicians, physician's assistants, etc.) charged with caring for the patient having the medical device.
Providing such a large volume of information to customer(s) for each patient can pose challenges. In some instances, medical devices collect upwards of 4000 parameters related to patient physiology and device performance. Customers often spend significant amounts of time and energy sorting through the information to get what they need to care for the patient. They could otherwise be spending this time and energy providing enhanced care for their patients. Moreover, full transmissions can put significant strain on medical device batteries.
In many cases, different customers may desire different information at different intervals in caring for the same patient. For example, an electrophysiologist is generally interested in reviewing certain information related to a pacemaker or ICD patient once every three to six months, as long as the patient is not experiencing adverse symptoms. Customers other than electrophysiologists are often interested in reviewing different information related to the same pacemaker or ICD patients at different intervals. For example, a heart failure specialist may desire different information on a more frequent basis. A heart failure specialist is often interested in looking at the clinical trends in the device diagnostics in order to better manage the heart failure. The frequency of data review depends on the condition of the patient. Immediately after a decompensation (heart failure episode where lungs get fluid accumulation), the physician may want to review the device diagnostic data on a daily basis for 1 or 2 weeks after the event but once the patient has stabilized may want to only review these data once a month or once a quarter.